William Thornton Peterson, “Bill”, 1942–2017 Zooplankton, Climate Change and Salmon Ecology

Corresponding editor: John Dolan William T. (Bill) Peterson (Fig. 1) was born in Vancouver, Washington, to Grace Ellen Bryan Peterson and The Rev. Howard Munson Peterson on 26 August 1942. Bill was a leading figure involved in promoting, developing and shaping research on the effects of climate change on zooplankton, salmon ecology and on North Pacific oceanography. He collaborated actively with international scientists from North Pacific rim nations, partly by actively participating since 1998 in the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES). Thus, Bill was extremely active in exchanges with ocean scientists all around the North Pacific, and he will be sorely missed. Bill, a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University in biology and chemistry, obtained an MS in oceanography from the University of Hawaii in 1969, describing the species diversity and community structure of tropical zooplankton in Kaneohe Bay of Oahu. After doing technical work with the geophysical research group there, he returned to the Pacific Northwest, taking a staff position in zooplankton research with Charlie Miller at Oregon State University at Corvallis. That led eventually to his dissertation (1980) at Oregon State on the development and inshore distributions of the copepod Calanus marshallae as its stages moved in the alternating flows of the Oregon upwelling system (Peterson, 1986, 1988). As Dr Peterson, Bill moved to the State University of New York (SUNY) on Long Island (1980–1987), where he taught and conducted research on nearshore zooplankton of the North Atlantic, again primarily copepods. At SUNY he supervised 12 MS students and 3 PhD students, including Hans Dam (currently a professor at the University of Connecticut), who became a lifelong friend and collaborator on 11 coauthored publications (e.g. Dam and Peterson, 1988, 1991; Dam et al., 1994). After 7 years at SUNY, Bill, his wife Mary and their two sons moved to Cape Town, South Africa (1987–1990), where he supervised research work on zooplankton distributions and seasonal cycling in the Benguela upwelling system. His group investigated the role of the Agulhas Bank as a spawning site for sardine and anchovy and the effects of coastal upwelling on feeding and egg production of local copepod species (Peterson and Painting, 1990). As tensions rose during the last years of apartheid, Bill and family returned to the USA. About this time, Bill was a visiting scientist for several short research stays in Chile, Denmark, Sweden and also back in South Africa. Eventually he held a sequence of positions with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). During 1990–1992, he joined NOAA/National Ocean Services (NOS): Center for Ocean Analysis and Prediction in Monterey, CA where he supervised 14 scientists developing more efficient ways of archiving NOS and other NOAA data products. This period reinforced his knowledge about climate effects on zooplankton in coastal upwelling systems. He held a key job at Silver Spring, MD, USA, from 1992 to 1995 as program manager for the National Science Foundation (NSF)/NOAA Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) Program and as Director of the U.S. GLOBEC Interagency Program Coordination Office. He supervised much of the planning and funding for the Georges Bank program in the NW Atlantic and helped to plan future GLOBEC research activities in the California Current and Gulf of Alaska. During 1992–1995, he was also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland’s Horn Point Environmental Laboratory.

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